If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Article on the Brawl..

Hey everyone .

Here is an article I wrote on the brawl for my school newspaper. It is a sports editorial. To prepare for writing it I watched the fight again on youtube. I recommend not doing this, because it was very painful. It's written somewhat simple because I wanted to tell it like an anecdote so non-NBA fans could enjoy it. Here it is.

Basketbrawl Diaries
by Quinn Brown

December means three things to me: presents, big budget films, and NBA. Lots of NBA. Every sports fan’s dream is a championship run by their favorite team, and basketball is no different. As the season ticks on, I see this as an opportune time to reflect on a horrendous event of three years ago, one that crushed any chance I had of celebrating an NBA championship.

My favorite team is the Indiana Pacers. I’m not exactly sure what a “pacer” is, but our mascot is a big, blue cat who wears the team’s white and gold uniform and dunks by jumping off of trampolines, a feat typically expected of a mascot. The pride of the Pacers is now-retired Reggie Miller, precocious hotshot out of UCLA who is often referred to as the best three point shooter of all time. In the 2004-05 NBA season, Reggie’s game was still intact and the talented Pacers squad was mentioned among the league’s elite. A championship seemed inevitable. Then it happened.

November 19, 2004 - a date that, like Pearl Harbor and the day that I decided to cut my own hair, lives in infamy. The Pacers were playing the Detroit Pistons at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Michigan. Pacers superstar Ron Artest was shoved in the face by Piston Ben Wallace and reacted passively by humorously laying down on top of the scorer’s table. A cup of beer was thrown by a Pistons fan and hit Artest in the face, leading him to impulsively charge the stands. Havoc ensued as players fought fans, players fought players, drunken fans accidentally fought their friends, and Pacers guard Jamaal Tinsley attempted to fight no one in particular with a giant metal dust pan. The “Malice at the Palace” was the most shocking television event of the 21st century (it has since been topped by FEMA doing nothing during Hurricane Katrina). I stared at my TV in disbelief as my Pacers were hauled off the court by security. Five Pacers players were suspended (Artest for the remainder of the season), while the Pistons suffered only one significant suspension of a measly six games. The player happened to be Ben Wallace, the one essentially responsible for starting it all (for proof, search “Pacers Pistons” on YouTube).

After the brawl, the Pacers’ dominance quickly faded. Artest once again became a loose cannon and was shipped to the Sacramento Kings, Reggie retired and many heartbroken fans became apathetic. I have spent the last three years of my life in denial, recreating the ‘04-05 Pacers team on basketball video games and adding myself, 5’8’’ point guard Quinn Brown, drafted out of high school, to the roster. After changing the difficulty to the easiest setting, I lead the Pacers to consecutive NBA championships.

Showing little resilience, the Pacers are currently regarded, somewhat inaccurately, as one of the worst teams in the NBA. But oh well, the Colts won the Super Bowl.

Re: Article on the Brawl..

The real question is... If Wallace doesn't throw the towel... does Green still throw the cup? IMHO... no, Green wasn't smart enough to come up with that on his own. Wallace threw the towel turned the light bulb on in Greens head, a very dim one.

"He wanted to get to that money time. Time when the hardware was on the table. That's when Roger was going to show up. So all we needed to do was stay close"Darnell Hillman (Speaking of former teammate Roger Brown)

Re: Article on the Brawl..

I think it would have been about 20 percent of the incident it became if Jackson had not run into the stands throwing roundhouse punches.

Yeah, because those fans were well under control before that with no signs of screaming for blood, no sign of Ben's brother leaving his seat to move 2 sections closer to Ron (before settling for the back of Fred's head), and no potential felons ready to rip chairs out to throw at someone.

No hard foul warrants even a cup thrown and frankly Ben flipped out about a play that Ron shrugged off when it happened to him shortly before that. But that I got, that's guys in the heat of battle feeling the physical affects of hard play. Green and the 3 jerks with him pounding their fists and screaming for a fight BEFORE the cup flies were the problem. You put those types of people in a situation without Ron OR Jackson even and you still get a brawl.

The decent Pistons fans had left, or did shortly after things turned sour. All that was left was drunks and hateful fans with questionable backgrounds. A few hundred people of that sort are always bad news.

The sad thing is that the focus was always on Ron, the Pacers, all the players, the NBA and "thug style". The focus should have been on why there were a few hundred people in the arena that night with the same attitude of that father and son combo in Chicago a few years prior, and how these behaviors signaled a growing problem with accepted social behavior (especially from crowds).

But that's boring and might have actually solved the issue, thus eliminating more chances for this. Better to have hecklers like the DC fan or the guy Maxwell socked or John Green, along with the "fun" fallout of their actions.

Re: Article on the Brawl..

I support you Jax. And for the Pistons fan earlier, I'm so you couldn't enjoy the article, but I probably couldn't either if a player from my team and my team's fans (Green and the scumbags who poured beverages on our exiting players) were responsible for the incident. Ron Artest is a hustle player who, as the reigning defensive player of the year over your Ben Wallace, tried his hardest now matter how much time was on the clock and no matter what the scoreboard said. His teammate got beat so his help defense was a hard foul that, according to almost anyone who watches the video, wasn't even that hard. Ron puts his hand up after the play to say, "my bad," but Ben is a brute who couldn't accept that. The FEMA line isn't so much of a joke than it is a sad truth.

Re: Article on the Brawl..

I support you Jax. And for the Pistons fan earlier, I'm so you couldn't enjoy the article, but I probably couldn't either if a player from my team and my team's fans (Green and the scumbags who poured beverages on our exiting players) were responsible for the incident.

I never once disputed your opinion of who was right or wrong. I had a problem with comparing it to Hurricane Katrina and Pearl Harbor.